All 19 episodes of 'Black Mirror,' ranked from worst to best

"Black Mirror" won the Emmy for Outstanding Television Movie over
the weekend for the second year in a row, this time for "USS
Callister." Last year, "San Junipero" took the prize.

The "Twilight Zone"-inspired sci-fi anthology series is a dark
reflection of our closer-than-ever future. It's haunting, but
that's what draws audiences to it.

With a mix of sci-fi horror and dark comedy, creator Charlie
Brooker's "Black Mirror" is funny at times because of the
absurdity of it all, but just as scary when we realize that the
show is a cautionary tale.

The series, in which every episode tells a different story about
technology run amok, originally aired on British television's
Channel 4 before being acquired by Netflix. Since then, the
streaming service has completed two seasons of six episodes each.

In all, there are 19 episodes of "Black Mirror" (all of which are
streaming on Netflix) and like with any show, there are
disappointments and standouts. Business Insider has ranked all 19
from worst to best.

Below is every "Black Mirror" episode, ranked:

19. "Men Against Fire" (Season 3, Episode 5)

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Netflix

"Black Mirror" is at its best when it is a cautionary tale
without shoving the episode's larger themes down our throats. The
best "Black Mirror" episodes are nuanced, or let the viewer draw
their own conclusions. "Men Against Fire" is about a solider who
uncovers a conspiracy when he discovers that the zombie-like
creatures he's been ordered to hunt are actually human, masked by
technology that wipes a soldiers' memories and controls what they
see. It's a show-and-tell presentation with much more telling
than showing, and the climax of the episode is an explosion of
exposition.

18. "Arkangel" (Season 4, Episode 2)

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Netflix

"Arkangel," directed by Jodie Foster, is terribly basic. It only
scratches the surface of what the episode could have explored in
terms of parenting. A mom uses a device that tells her daughter's
location and records what she sees, which could naturally have
horrific ramifications for a mother-daughter relationship - and
it does. The predictable conclusion of the episode could have
been satisfying if the stakes were higher, but the episode plays
it safe, and only cares to examine the most cliche aspects of a
teenager's life.

17. "Fifteen Million Merits" (Season 1, Episode 2)

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Channel 4

Before "Get Out" and "Black Panther," Daniel Kaluuya starred in a
weak "Black Mirror" episode, but he gives a strong performance.
The episode follows Kaluuya's character Bing in a society where
people ride power-generating stationary bikes in exchange for
merits. He falls for a woman who can sing beautifully, and he
convinces her to enter a contest in which he uses all of his
millions of merits to gift her an entry ticket. Things naturally
collapse from there. The episode is a fine commentary on greed
and commercialism, but doesn't rise above better episodes.

16. "Shut Up and Dance" (Season 3, Episode 3)

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Netflix

Like so many other "Black Mirror" episodes, "Shut Up and Dance"
blackmails/deceives its main character into doing or facing
horrifying things only for it all to backfire on them (can also
be seen in "The National Anthem" and "White Bear"). But "Shut Up
and Dance" is the worst of them because it depicts this situation
without offering some morally complex resolution. "The National
Anthem" has political ramifications and "White Bear" is a
commentary on punishment. You could say that "Shut Up and Dance"
is more similar to the latter, but seems more like an exercise in
random humiliation than anything else.

15. "The Waldo Moment" (Season 2, Episode 3)

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Channel 4

"Everyone's pissed with the status quo. Waldo gives that a
voice."

"He's a bear."

"Telling times."

This exchange, if written today, would ring familiarly with
American audiences. But "The Waldo Moment" first aired in 2013,
long before Donald Trump was President of the United States. Like
all "Black Mirror" episodes, "The Waldo Moment" has a lot to say
about technology in culture and politics, and like some episodes,
it's hard to figure out what exactly that is.

14. "Metalhead" (Season 4, Episode 5)

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Netflix

"Metalhead" is probably the simplest "Black Mirror" episode, both
in terms of substance and style. That's not necessarily a bad
thing, but it also doesn't set "Metalhead" apart from other
episodes. The episode follows a woman fleeing from a deadly
mechanical "dog" and ... well, that's it. The black-and-white of
the episode reflects the simplicity of the story, but there's not
much emotionally satisfying or thought-provoking about the whole
thing.

13. "The National Anthem" (Season 1, Episode 1)

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Channel 4

How do you kick off a sci-fi anthology series? You put a
politician in a situation where he has to have sex with a pig.
That's the basic idea behind the first episode of "Black Mirror"
and while the series has evolved since then, "The National
Anthem" set a precedent for the weirdness and big ideas of the
show going forward.

12. "Playtest" (Season 3, Episode 2)

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Netflix

The majority of "Playtest," about a man testing a highly advanced
virtual-reality game for extra cash, is a slow burn, and it tests
the audience's patience more than other "Black Mirror" episodes.
But its ending elevates the entire episode, and is one of my
favorites of the series (despite being such a downer, but that's
a given with this show).

11. "Hang the DJ" (Season 4, Episode 4)

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Netflix

On the surface, season 4's "Hang the DJ" is most comparable to
season 3's standout, "San Junipero." They are both cheerful
compared to the majority of "Black Mirror's" bleak episodes, and
deal with two people finding love in a simulated environment. But
while "Hang the DJ" seems to end on a happy note, what the rest
of the episode has to say about dating apps suggests it's not as
positive of an ending as it appears. We discover that the main
characters Frank and Amy we've been following throughout the
episode were just one of 1,000 different simulations with the
goal to discover if they are compatible in the real world. We're
led to believe that they will live happily-ever-after in the real
world in the end, but the grander theme suggested by the rest of
the episode is much more chilling: the real Frank and Amy's
relationship could be perceived as just as fake as the simulated
ones.

10. "White Bear" (Season 2, Episode 1)

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Channel 4

"White Bear" does what "Black Mirror" does best - putting its
characters through an hour of punishment and seeing how much
they, and the audience, can endure. Netflix tackled the idea of
punishment in season 4's "Black Museum," but "White Bear" had
already taken it to another level, by putting a woman named
Victoria through a traumatic event that is put on by actors.
Every day, her memory is wiped and the process starts anew the
next day, and it's her "sentence" for a horrible crime she
committed. "White Bear" toys with our emotions by introducing
Victoria as an innocent, but we know by now to never get too
attached to this show's characters. What holds "White Bear" back,
though, is that its main purpose is to toy with us, whereas
"Black Museum," for instance, has something to say about
criminality and justice.

9. "Black Museum" (Season 4, Episode 6)

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Netflix

"Black Mirror" has always been far-fetched, but the point is
usually that the horrors of an episode are closer to reality than
we'd like to accept. In "Black Museum," the audience is
introduced to movie-like horrors, like a doctor so addicted to
pain that he mutilates himself. Like other episodes, such as
"White Christmas," "Black Museum" strings together three stories
that come together by the end. Unlike other episodes, though,
it's more unsettling because of what we see on screen than what
we could imagine is in our own future. The museum itself acts as
a sort of "Black Mirror" museum ("Black Museum") - artifacts from
other episodes can be found throughout. Maybe the episode is
Brooker's commentary on his own show: whatever horrors the show
envisions will be antiques with enough time, just for the next
set of horrors to be introduced.

8. "White Christmas" (Christmas Special)

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Channel 4

Just because it's a Christmas special and stars Jon Hamm doesn't
mean this will be a happy episode. This is "Black Mirror" we're
talking about after all. This show likes to put people through
complex forms of punishment that aren't revealed until the very
end, like "White Bear," "National Anthem," and "Shut Up and
Dance." "White Christmas" is similar, but the episode manages to
balance multiple storylines well and then weave them all together
in the end in a satisfying and sensible (in terms of "Black
Mirror") way. Did I mention there's also Jon Hamm?

7. "Crocodile" (Season 4, Episode 3)

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Netflix

The main character of "Crocodile," Mia, lives in a world where
memory-scanning technology exists, and the things she's done
(murder) can't be hidden. Mia's actions are hard to believe, as
when she is first introduced she is relatively sweet and
innocent. But in a world with that kind of technology, anyone
could be driven to intense paranoia and a compulsion to protect
oneself at any cost, and as the episode moves forward, Mia's
actions become increasingly horrific. That said, it could be
argued that Mia is driven mad more by her own guilt and
selfishness than by any technology, and is more cold-blooded
(like a ... crocodile?) than we are led to believe at first. That
might say just as much about humanity as any other episode.

6. "Hated in the Nation" (Season 3, Episode 6)

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Netflix

At nearly 90 minutes, the longest "Black Mirror" episode, "Hated
in the Nation" manages to be a murder mystery, a Hitchcockian
thriller, and a disaster movie all in one. The runtime is
intimidating at first, but the episode is paced extremely well.
Of the many elements, the commentary on internet trolling is
probably the most important, and that is somehow intertwined with
themes of environmental protection. On paper, "Hated in the
Nation" shouldn't work, but it's pulled off impressively, right
down to the terrifying imagery, like a room darkening as hundreds
of cybernetic bees land on a window.

5. "Nosedive" (Season 3, Episode 1)

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Netflix

Bryce Dallas Howard is excellent in this episode about extreme
social media obsession, which is both a cautionary tale in the
best ways that "Black Mirror" can be, but also a dark comedy ...
also in the best ways that "Black Mirror" can be.

4. "The Entire History of You" (Season 1, Episode 3)

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Channel 4

"The Entire History of You" is a commentary on paranoia, only
this time, the paranoia leads to exactly what the character
feared. This leaves the audience with some serious questions to
ponder, because while we don't necessarily like Liam throughout
this episode, we discover that he was right all along: his wife
had cheated on him and his child isn't actually his. In a world
where technology allows you to rewatch memories like you would
rewind or fast-forward a movie, the episode takes the concept to
its natural conclusion. But that doesn't mean it's not effective
or thought-provoking.

3. "San Junipero" (Season 3, Episode 4)

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Netflix

"San Junipero" is the most uplifting episode of the entire
series. That's not why it's one of the best, but it helps. "San
Junipero" is one of the few episodes of the series that seems
like its main goal is to be fun and hopeful. It's not necessarily
a warning of how technology could ruin us, but how it could
ultimately bring us together - a welcome change of pace.

2. "Be Right Back" (Season 2, Episode 1)

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Channel 4

Before he was a "Star Wars" villain, Domhnall Gleeson entered the
world of "Black Mirror" with "Captain America: The First Avenger"
star Hayley Atwell. The two delivered a superb 48 minutes of
television, one that asks the important questions that "Black
Mirror" is known for without hitting us over the head with it
(which it can also be known for). But if you strip away the moral
meditation of it all, it's still just a great idea with an
emotional payoff and engaging performances, and that's what
should be expected of "Black Mirror" episodes. Too often they can
fall under the weight of their own meaning. Not "Be Right Back."

1. "USS Callister" (Season 4, Episode 1)

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Netflix

As toxic fandoms reach new heights, specifically in terms of
the "Star Wars" franchise,
it's no better time than to revisit "USS Callister," which
explores what would happen if that toxicity were given the
ultimate outlet: a game that puts you in a "Star Trek"-inspired
digital space. Jesse Plemons plays Robert Daly, the CTO of a
gaming company with grudges against his colleagues that "wrong"
him. He can't get revenge in the real world, so he steals their
DNA and replicates them in digital forms in his modified game
that he has absolute control over. Unlike most "Black Mirror"
episodes, "USS Callister" reveals that twist early on, but only
after we're led to believe that Daly is just a down-on-his-luck
geek, and the game he's playing is just innocent fun. Getting the
big twist out of the way early, though, makes for an episode that
can focus on telling the story. They may be digital, but the
episode is effective because it makes us root for the Callister
crew - led by a great Cristin Milioti - under Daly's control.